I’ve Never Related to Any TV Mom as Much as I Relate to a Cartoon Dog
I get it, Chilli. I've been there.
10 new episodes of Bluey have dropped in the U.S.—and one episode, “Relax,” gives us some insight into Bluey’s mom Chilli (Melanie Zanetti). And wow, is she relatable.
In “Relax,” the family goes on holiday to a beachside apartment. Chilli is in a hurry to get to the beach, but the kids are so enthralled by the apartment that they won’t stay on task. This place has bunk beds! And ribbons on the toilets! And a bathtub in the shape of a triangle! Who can think of the beach at a time like this!?
Bandit (David McCormack) finally tells Chilli to go down to the beach herself. Chilli happily accepts his offer to watch the kids, and takes the book she’s reading down to the sand.
Once there, she realizes that she has no idea how to relax. She just sits there, stiff and pensive, before giving up and going back inside.
Oh, man. Chilli, as a fellow mom of two daughters, I feel you. Having kids changes the way your brain works. Even when you’re off duty, you’ve always got one ear open for signs of trouble. Are the kids fighting? Are they doing something dangerous? Is there some chore you’re neglecting? Some fire you need to put out? You’ve always got to be ready! Even when you consciously try to relax, your body won’t let you.
It really, really sucks.
Not only that, but leisure itself has come to feel fraught and unattainable. The book Chilli is reading is a book on how to be happy, and it opens with a Jon Kabat-Zinn quote that’s become a cliché: “Wherever you go, there you are.” The line is the title of Kabat-Zinn’s classic guide to mindfulness meditation, but Chilli seems to be approaching happiness as a kind of wellness regimen. Happiness isn’t something that can just happen to you; you have to work at it.
The solution in the episode—just do whatever moves you in the moment, like Bluey and Bingo do!—may feel overly simplistic, but Kabat-Zinn would probably approve. “Guess what?” he writes in Wherever You Go, There You Are. “When it comes right down to it, wherever you go, there you are. Whatever you wind up doing, that’s what you’ve wound up doing … The important question is, how are you going to handle it?” When we let go of our expectations, we can find contentment in the moment.
Even when the kids demand to go to the beach as soon as we’ve kicked back with a cup of tea. Hang in there, Chilli.
(featured image: Disney+)
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